


A place where souls go

by slytherinharrison



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Fluff, M/M, Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-17 21:34:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19963552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherinharrison/pseuds/slytherinharrison
Summary: Barty broke the eye contact. “If there is a place where souls go after life, then there's someone waiting for me.” Sirius laughed humourlessly. “Yes, your father and I would really reconsider keeping my soul if afterlife would look like that.” Barty's next words were barely audible. “My husband.”An almost-everyone-lives-fix-it set after the Goblet of Fire. Regulus and Barty get a second chance.





	A place where souls go

**Author's Note:**

> I fell into rare ship hell. Then this headcanon formed. Enjoy!

Harry vaguely registered arms tightening around him. He continued to stare at the kitchen wall of 11 Grimmauld Place, barely reacting as Sirius hugged him. He could hear loud voices around him, but he didn't get what they were saying. He didn't want to be there. Dumbledore insisted to come together to discuss what they should do with the man who turned out to be Barty Crouch Jr., the man who posed as his Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for the last year. Cedric was dead. Voldemort was back. He didn't want to be there. He just wanted to be alone.

It took Harry some time to focus, but after a couple of minutes, he concentrated on the matter at hand. Barty Crouch Jr. was bound to a chair, surrounded by a group of people interrogating him. They had cleared up the mystery of how the man escaped Askaban and how he was still alive.

Kingsley Shaklebolt had asked him about the Longbottoms and Barty smiled bitterly. “I didn't lie on my trail. I didn't hurt anyone. I accompanied them, but I wasn't even in the same room when it happened.” Sirius scoffed. “I'm sure you hurt plenty of people. You killed your own father!” Barty's head snapped in his direction. “Something I thought you of all people would be able to understand, Black!”, he hissed. Threats and accusations continued to be thrown around, until Barty finally shouted “Just kill me already, then!” The room went silent and all eyes were on the prisoner. “That's what this is about, isn't it? Me being killed or sent back to Askaban. I prefer death over that hellhole.” Before anyone else could answer, Snape stepped closer to Barty and smiled down at him. “There is a third option that I heard the minister discuss. I think, he wants the Dementor's kiss for you, Crouch.” 

Every last bit of colour left Barty's face at those words. There was a sadistic glimmer in Snape's eyes as he witnessed his reaction to the words. “Not so keen on dying now, are we?”, he said with a mocking tone. “I can't.”, Barty whispered. “I can't die that way.” Snapes smile disappeared and he glared at him. “That won't be your decision. Is there a particular reason you want to keep your soul inside your body, apart from the obvious?” Barty broke the eye contact. “If there is a place where souls go after life, then there's someone waiting for me.” Sirius laughed humourlessly. “Yes, your father and I would really reconsider keeping my soul if afterlife would look like that.” Barty's next words were barely audible. “My husband.”

Those two words seemed to take all of them by surprise. Sirius was the first one to speak again. “You were married? To a man?” Barty didn't answer. “Who? Who was it?” But before anyone could say something else, a loud noise erupted from the silence. Someone had apparated into 11 Grimmauld Place, but they didn't expect anyone else. 

Sirius shoved Harry behind him and pointed his wand at the newcomer as the other adults did the same with Ron and Hermione. A tall and thin man stood in the doorway between corridor and kitchen. He wore an old and shabby travel cloak and a hood hid most of his face. Nobody moved or made a sound for a few moments that felt like eternity, until Dumbledore spoke calmly and clearly. “Show yourself!” 

The man didn't react at first and seemed to scan the crowd in front of him, but then he slowly lifted his hands to his hood and took it down. Harry heard several shocked noises around him, but he didn't understand why. He had never seen this man before in his life. Harry witnessed the hurt and confused look on Sirius face and how the hand holding his wand started to shake. He realized that the strange man looked a little bit like his godfather. “Regulus?” The stranger smiled and his eyes were full of sadness and regret. “Hello, brother.”

Harry's head began to hurt again, but this time it hadn't to do anything with Voldemort. Sirius told him that his brother was dead. A former death eater killed by his own men. But Regulus looked very alive, standing few feet in front of them. On the other hand, they'd just found out another man thought dead for over a decade was still living as well. 

“Reg.. how... how are you...?” Sirius didn't seem to be able to properly articulate the question all of them were asking themselves. “I didn't die. But I feared that I alerted the other death eaters to my betrayal. And your people were after me as well. It was far more convenient to let the world think I was dead and go into hiding.” Sirius expression grew more pained. “Even your- our parents?” Regulus smiled sadly. “Especially them. Their mourning needed to be real in order to convince everyone of my death.” 

“But that's not why I am here.” Snape barely concealed his own surprise with a snarl. “What are you here for then?” Regulus ignored him and turned to Dumbledore. “I'm here for an exchange. I am in possession of something very valuable that I kept safe for years. I have no use for it, but I think you do, Dumbledore.” He slowly reached into his pocket and took out a green amulet that twitched in his grip. “You know what this is, don't you?” Dumbledore showed no reaction to the object. “What do you demand in exchange?” Regulus swallowed. He seemed slightly more nervous now, as if a lot depended on this moment. “You let me patch myself up and then allow me to leave with Barty.”

Dumbledore didn't seem surprised by Regulus' proposition, but the others, especially Sirius looked confused. “Why on earth would you trade that thing for him? Didn't you say you betrayed the death eaters?” Regulus looked past his older brother to Barty and his expression softened a little bit. “I did. I planned to reveal myself after the attention shifted away from my disappearance, but then he got sent to Askaban and I received news that he died there. I only learned of his survival minutes ago from Kreacher.” Sirius didn't seem pleased by that information. “Kreacher?!” Regulus chuckled. “Of course. After all, he liked me better than anyone else in this house.” Harry could see his godfather grow more confused and agitated by the minute. “But why? Why free him?” Now Regulus outright laughed. “God, Sirius, you're thick. We're married.”

“What?! How? When? Why did-” Regulus interrupted his brother and addressed Dumbledore again. “Do we have a deal?” Dubledore seemed to consider the offer for a couple of seconds and then nodded. “Yes.” A lot of tension left Regulus' body. “I trust you to be a man of your word, but I won't give you the amulet until right before we leave.” Snape obviously wasn't pleased by that condition. “And why should we trust you to do that?” Regulus met his glare. “I have no reason to keep it. Its nature is almost as bad as a Dementor's.” Dumbledore lifted his hands reassuringly. “It's alright, Severus.”

Regulus fixed his eyes on Barty and the others around him stepped back to let him through. Barty looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and hope. His lips were slightly parted and his eyes swam in unshed tears. Regulus knelt before him and removed the bonds on his wrists. “It's you. It's really you. You're alive.” Barty's voice trembled and he was shaking slightly. Regulus took his head in both hands and stroked his temple with a thumb. “I'm so sorry I didn't come back for you.” Barty shook his head. “It's okay.” Regulus seemed close to tears too and pulled his lover into a hug.

Around them, Snape, Lupin and some other people Harry had seen before but couldn't name talked to Dumbledore and voiced their concerns about trusting Regulus and letting Barty walk free, but the headmaster looked unimpressed. Regulus and Barty themselves seemed oblivious to their surroundings, lost in their own world, since both of them had just found out that the other one was alive. Regulus slowly pulled back from the hug and pressed his lips to Barty's. His hand was on Barty's chest, it stroked over a ring hanging from a necklace that matched the one on Regulus hand. 

Harry looked back to Sirius, who was still dumbstruck. Understandable, after all he just found out that his younger brother was alive and that he knew even less about him than he thought. Harry felt sorry for him, he suspected that Sirius had always blamed his absence for the path his younger brother chose, supposedly leading him into death. The events of the last minutes seemed to have brought a lot of old and deep buried pain back to the surface.

After a few minutes of chaos and discussion, Sirius voiced his support of Dumbledore's decision and dismissed Regulus and Barty, pointing out that Regulus knew where the bathroom was and he should “make himself at home”. Regulus smiled slightly at his brother's joke and led Barty upstairs. The discussion started anew, but now it was less about the deal Dumbledore had made and more about the surreal situation itself. Harry had to admit that he had doubts as well. Dumbledore was always a bit too trusting, the presence of Snape was the best example of that. And Sirius couldn't be objective on the matter of his own brother. The amulet Dumbledore exchanged for Barty had to be very important. Or the headmaster just believed that the two men were still redeemable. 

But what if they had no intention of returning the amulet. Maybe they'd just wanted to leave the room to escape right away. Or they were planning an attack. Harry made a decision. Dumbledore and Sirius may trust the two men blindly, but he wouldn't. In the turmoil around him, it was easy for Harry to throw on the invisibility cloak and sneak to the staircase without anyone noticing it. He stopped every couple of feet to listen for sounds that would give Regulus and Barty's position away, but the hallways stayed silent. Harry walked as far as to Sirius' room, when he finally heard something. Soft murmurs came from the room next to it that Harry suspected was Regulus' old room. He stepped closer and was glad that the door was slightly ajar, so he could look inside. The scene in front of him wasn't what Harry expected, there was certainly no evil planning involved.

Both men were wore new, light clothes that looked fancy but a bit out of fashion, they probably took them from the wardrobe. Harry remembered Sirius saying that his mother never touched the room with a small desperate hope that her favourite son had survived and would someday return to her. Their skin was still slightly damp and their hair was wet from the shower they took few minutes before. Barty lay on his back on the dark, wooden bed with green covers and Regulus was on top of him. They were holding on to each other, so tight as if they feared they would lose each other again otherwise. They were kissing. It was a slow and gentle kiss. And Harry realized, this wasn't lust. It was love, pure love. And a part of him understood Dumbledore. He knew that the two men would do anything for each other, now that they had each other back. But it was hard to imagine these loving creatures being cruel just for evil's sake. Harry decided that he would trust Dumbledore on this and slowly and silently made his way back to the kitchen.


End file.
